OCS Archive Site

CIP to grow potatoes on Mars

posted Jun 21, 2017, 6:01 AM by Caroline Nzui

By Ton Dobbe (Unit4), Carlos Varela (CIP) and Joel Ranck (CIP)

Carlos Varela (Chief Information Officer) and Joel Ranck (Head of Communications) from the International Potato Center (CIP) had the pleasure of being interviewed by Unit4 about their vision for making a potato the first living organism on Mars, and the role that OCS is playing in realizing that dream.

The project #PotatoesOnMars, which is being executed in partnership with NASA, has become big news and raised the profile of CIP and its cause worldwide with a media reach of more than 2 billion. The project is led by a team of world-class scientists who aim to grow potatoes under Martian conditions in a bid to save millions of lives on earth.

So how exactly does OCS come in? The system, through UNIT4’s Elastic Foundation, will be able to capture every single relevant detail and aspect of the business at a level of granularity unmatched in the industry.

“This capability allows us to link any transaction to a purpose, that is, a scientific activity and the project it belongs to. This way scientists, project managers and business managers across the organization can be 100% accountable for anything they do or spend and have real-time insight into burn-rates to take instant action to make improvements,” explained Carlos Varela.